Twitter acquires Magic Pony machine learning startup

In a significant announcement, micro-blogging website Twitter has acquired an 18-month-old London-based startup Magic Pony Technology to expand its capabilities in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).

"Our acquisition of Magic Pony builds on other investments we have made in machine learning, beginning with the acquisitions of image search startup Madbits in July 2014 and machine learning startup Whetlab in June 2015," Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey wrote in a blog post on Monday.

Magic Pony's team would be joining Twitter Cortex, a team of engineers, data scientists and machine learning researchers dedicated to building a product in which people can easily find new experiences to share and participate in.

Although Dorsey did not mention how much Twitter paid for acquisition, a report in technology website TechCrunch.com said Twitter will pay nearly $150 million for the company, including bonuses.

Magic Pony's technology would be "used to enhance our strength in live and video and opens up a whole lot of exciting creative possibilities for Twitter".

Dorsey said the company was continuing to build strength into deep learning teams with world-class talent to help Twitter be the best place to see what is happening and why it matters.

"We value deep learning research to help make our world better and we will keep doing our part to share our work and learnings with the community," he noted.

--IANS

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